An interview with Sasha Mallory

This summer on Fox’s reality competition series So You Think You Can Dance, the girls ruled the stage, right up to the very end when favorites Sasha Mallory and Melanie Moore were the last dancers standing. While Moore took the title, this definitely isn’t the last we’ll see of Sasha.

First up is the SYTYCD tour, which kicks off September 17 in Orlando, FL, and then the sky’s the limit for the out Mallory, who recently talked to AfterEllen.com about her experience on the show, why she didn’t talk about her sexuality, her celebrity crushes and, most importantly, is she available?

AfterEllen.com: Was dancing always your path? You started dancing when you were really young, right?

Sasha Mallory: I always loved to dance since I was five years old but I was also a wanderer. I wanted to do everything! I wanted to build planes, wash windows — you name it and I wanted to do it! I was just everywhere! I was 12 or 13 when I actually got serious about dance and wanted to be a dancer and do that for the rest of my life. My mom got me into it so I was doing ballet and doing all the technique classes and then I branched out to doing hip-hop and doing more stylized things.

AE: Looking back on the experience on the show, it must be so surreal. Has it sunk in what happened to you over the last few months?

SM: It’s so weird! I really haven’t sat down to watch the show yet and take it all in because I’ve just been going and going but we sat down to watch it and were like, “Wow, that actually happened.” We’re so excited to be on tour but it’s crazy. I’ve been online a few times looking at all the videos and the comments and it’s breathtaking. It’s really mind-boggling! It’s ridiculous. I can’t believe what a big deal this show is and how much we got out there. It was kind of like a slap in the face, a wake up call! Wow, you’re actually being seen!

AE: What would you say was the hardest dance you did physically and emotionally on the show? I can guess which ones but you actually lived it so what do you think?

SM: I think the hardest dance for me to do, technique-wise, was the Cha-Cha. Wow! That was definitely the hardest one for me. It was just hard getting all the steps and they had to make it a lot easier! It was a lot harder than that because it was super fast and every single count had a step or a hand or something and I was freaking out because for some reason I couldn’t retain all the choreography. I couldn’t keep it in my body. Usually with me in rehearsals I try to get it right away so I can sleep on it and it gets into my body even more but by the third rehearsal that we had I was still, “Oh my God! What is going on?”

I think the hardest dance for me to get emotionally out — they were all pretty challenging but I loved them all. Anything where I could tell a story, I loved being able to be in any situation onstage and tell a story. I really loved getting into the characters and having to act them out. All of them were pretty challenging but not at the same time.